My dinafem discovery and subsequent delight

[Topdraw]

Thanks for the great reply that has really set me off on the right foot. I'm fairly confident I can get them low and wide, maybe not quite as well as you do it but I'll give it a good go.

Wish I'd used the clover to start off the seedlings instead of my westlands seed compost. They are only in 4"pots and I'm sure after 8 days in clover they would be fully rooted out. I reckon they need another day or two before I drop them into the good stuff....can't wait to watch them fly.

One final question and I promise it's the last. I notice you use Calmag, is this just because of your dodgy water supply or is it something you would recommend for everyone? My water company tells me mine is moderately hard, so maybe no need?

Anyway this may all be incidental as I'm a Toon fan I'm off out to hoy myself off the Tyne bridge.

Cheers

TD

[blackpoolbouncer]

@Mk cheese that's what it's all about mate. Its so rewarding to sit and chill in the garden with a j and watch the butterfly's and bees. I'm a sucker for anything that's big and colourful so this year my garden should be an explosion of it.

Today's task is to build a raised bed out of sleepers for 100 gladioli, 20 Holyhock 10 delphinium and 20 lupins finished off at the front with a few different variety of hostas and dwarf bush sunflowers. Oh and get 50 or so morning glorys planted up.

Clear a bit of space much needed in my polytunnel.

Good stuff on the pond and the planting the hedges and trees. Conservation is important and often gardening and landscaping is about more than just the aesthetics. A tree planted now is something that not only generations of people can enjoy but is giving back to the earth in a way. A tree over its course of a lifetime will be a home to many and provide untold amounts of oxygen for the world let alone food and nourishment for many. Anyway I'm rambling. Good on ya tho man to have that mindset at our age. Its something I wish more of our generation felt strongly about. Keep up the good work and spread the word.

Let's make gardening cool

[botanics]

@@blackpoolbouncer

Lupins bugtastic! You know what mate, you have a fine occupation indeed, hard graft but very rewarding

[blackpoolbouncer]

Hey guys. Sorry the last update never got published. I spent nearly an hour writing g an edit to the last post and got called out and by the time I got back and hit post I'd lost it. Bugger!!!.

@@Topdraw I wrote out an in depth response regarding calmag. I hear some people have issues with oldtimers and I think it could be down to this. However I regularly see mag defs and occasionally cal defs even in my outdoor plants in containers so this is justification to me that my water is shit.

I think it may not be nessesary in harder water areas but since I've never grown using a hard water or even a consistent water supply it's hard for me to say from experience. I'd still recommend cal mag perhaps but in smaller doses.

@@botanics thanks you sir. Indeed I do. It sure beats the pace of life and stress induction that working as a doorman/bodyguard used to bring.
Lupins.....tell me about it. I love them but the greenfly seem to like them more. Ladybirds to the rescue.

So here's a couple quick shots I took of the first purple trainwreck to come down.

She smells lovely and has a very chemically sharpness to her. The taste when you smoke her isn't quite there but she is only just dried. A bit of a cure will bring her out I think. Her and her sister are the little girls in the room. Her sister is the tall girl that I've only let get to 30cm deep but 60 wide. This girl will be the smallest producer.

The bigger of the two PTs has given me I reckon probably around the 4 Oz mark. Maybe a shade less. My ex took the digi scales for her bodybuilding when we split up and I don't need the worry of replacing and having another set in the house so from here on in the weights are just guesstimates unless my buddy pops round with his.

Of the four girls who are left I'm in for a bloody good crop I'd say of the three amnesia kush's. The genetics of these girls stand out against the purple trainwrecks by a mile. Much much better plants overall. Good work dinafem.

Updates wise. The top buds leaves have well and truly had enough of being under the 600.

You can see a circle under the lamp where there frazzled. The lamp distance shouldn't be a problem so I'm putting green this issue down to it having an ancient bulb in which is running hot and the fact it is a shite reflector. I much prefer the open winged reflector and will be going back to that for the next grow along with my 400w bulb. I'm considering chucking another 400w bulb in there so I've got better light penetration and less direct heat on the canopy as it will be spread.

The plants to be fair are looking a bag of shit now but the buds are lovely and that's all that matters at this stage. the leaves have served there purpose and luckily issues have only arisen right at the end.

All in all its been pretty successfull so far for this new room. Considering it had been a whole new set up.

One thing ice noted is that now the room is on a south facing wall in the caravan the lights off temps got to 27 when really hot this last couple weeks.

Soon it will be time to start drawing the air from outdoors and I also now know it's gonna be a good shout to insulate the room.

It is all in hand.

I've got a couple of shots of the rest of the girls and I'm having a night off tonight so I'll pop back with more photos.

One thing I will say though is that all my mates have commented that my auto's make much better plants and that the buds on these, although very nice.....belive it or not aren't half as impressive as my auto's.

I belive this is purely down to structure and how auto's produce buds.....auto's make there buds slightly differently and its my method that capitalises on this.

Pay copse attention and you notice that photos and auto's make for slightly different plants. Formation wise. When you spot the difference youl know what I mean. @@Dan1122 will know what I mean

Edited May 17, 2016 by blackpoolbouncer

[blackpoolbouncer]

OK folks. Here ya go. The good. The bad and the downright ugly.

I should really go round and have a clear up but we're on about day 76 or something so the girls are pretty cooked anyway. Thank God I've only run into issues so late on. Up until about two weeks ago things were tip top and now things have got ugly. You can see the top leaves are completely frazzled now. Although now wearing ugly leaves the buds are sweet as a nut. I may harvest the top 6 inches of buds in the next few nights and let some of the lower buds have a few days longer. I'm keeping a close eye on these buds. I can cope with crispy leaves but I can't cope with crispy buds.

I will get some good shots of the non crispy buds that are furthest from the light for posterity and prettyness but I thought I'd show these anyway.

A pair or even just the one 400 will be the way to go with as mentioned earlier a different reflector like I used to use. And then I'll be having no more of this carry on.

Edit to add. I've just noticed that it appears the AK that ocupys the left half of the room. Looks to be lacking in buds compared to the other two. This isn't the case. She is actually the biggest girl and is spread out but the way she sits you can't really see

All in all I couldn't care less about the crispy leaves. I should come in well over a gpw and considering I've not tended to them for the last 8 weeks or so apart from a quick watering when I've had chance they have rewarded me well and will fill the jars nicely.

Now....just to get these boxed off and trimmed over this week and get some auto's on. Mark......I shall be in touch. I'm feeling critical all of a sudden and I'm feigning for a taste of widow again.

Let's stop fucking about with plants that take an eon to grow. Let's fast forward to the 21st century and get some auto's going and let's start smashing things again.

The summer is upon us and its time to grow some big autos. Harvest every 40 days commencing in roughly 80 days

All said and done. I did these because purely of what genetics went into them. If it were any other strain I wouldn't have bothered. The purple trainwreck certainly hasn't convinced me to be on photos but I thought that the Amnesia kush could do.

She has been a lovely plant to grow don't get me wrong and each one should give me well over 5 oz conservatively.

Heck I dunno. Its hard to say. All I know is these would be 7 or 8 ouncers if they were autos so let's see.

I set off hoping to hit 1.5gpw or there abouts. Which is an ask from seed. I dunno maybe these girls will be more than I think.......its that long since I harvested and weighed weed I forget what lots looks like.

However I'm usually pretty good at guessing weight. I'm usually within half oz when guessing.....we will see.

If off to get some better shots and seeing as how superfamily fibre optic has landed each photo no longer takes over a minute to upload...happy days.

Peace out for now

Edited May 17, 2016 by blackpoolbouncer

[blackpoolbouncer]

As promised....

Here's a shot of some buds at the back of the room. A bit further from the light.......confirmation my feed has been pretty much bang on. This is how the rest of the buds should look. These buds are nearly 5 foot away from the lamp and are only just out of the devastation to the leaves caused by the lamp.

And a little closer. Still 4 foot from lamp

And worse

But you can see here....thankfully the buds themselves haven't taken any harm. I can't be leaving them much longer though because as soon as any crispness gets to the bud then it's time to chop or the buds are gonna suffer.

Anyway. Try to picture them with no brown leaves and we have the making of some lovely buds. I'm looking forward to chopping these and really seeing what they look like. I will certainly make up for the shit looking end plant with some decent shots of the finished product once trimmed

Crispy crispy.

Two of the Aks I'd say are amnesia leaning which are the girls that are very knobbly and full of long stacked calyxs and I have one which is more kushy looking with more rounded exterior. Can you confirm @@Dinafem-Mark?

Sorry for not finishing up with a primo looking cream of the crop entry folks but sometimes shit happens that's out of your control. If I'd have gone out and bought another 400 instead of using this ancient 600 we would be in a different boat but hey. You all learn.....even me. Sometimes the hard way.

Stay safe folks.

I'm gonna have to rig up another fan and filter and try and make this whole caravan negative pressure cos jeez Louise these girls stink. ......Might have to do the trimming in groom of these girls.

Peace out for tonight

[botanics]

Top budz mate, who cares about leaves anyhow

You smash it whatever you're growing dude

[blackpoolbouncer]

Cheers mate. Your dead right. But everyone's so vain these days @botanics

[Guest Bajer101]

Hi @@blackpoolbouncer. I stumbled across your thread and I'm loving your work. Top marks sir and thank you for the many tips that I have picked up. I've a couple of questions if you don't mind, and apologies if you have covered this already. I know that you were using a 400 watt for your earlier grows and I was wondering what reflector you used? I am also curious about your drying method. You chopped some plants early and plan on doing a staggered, perpetual grow, so I was wondering how you manage to dry stealthily seeing as you don't seem to have a separate drying area.

Thanks,

Bajer.

[blackpoolbouncer]

@ thank you sir. No apologies necessary. The reflector I used previously and prefer is a bog standard cheap as ya like open ended jobbing. Nothing fancy. I know there are better reflectors out there but the shape allows heat out of each end and to rise. The reflector that came with this lamp is like a barn roof. Shite. It directs a beam of heat down.

I found light spread to be just fine with a normal reflector.

A parabolic would be nice but if I'm honest. Without it being on a commercial scale and it being in a bigger room I think these will pose similar problems as has been covered by people who use them.

An air extracted parabolic would be grand but I'll stick to the 5 quid reflector as being a close second best...controversial maybe.

Either way heat radiation imo plays a bigger part than losing a tiny percentage of light.

I always use a separate drying area. Early on I was using a large cardboard box hooked up to a passive intake. Then I built a drying box out of an old set of drawers which doubled as a veg area.

Now since going onto the new groom I have had to erect my dr80 and hook it up to a cobbled together semi active intake which has worked lovely. I cannot dry without the aid of some new pressure and a cf.

Hope this clarify buddy. Thanks for looking

[Guest Bajer101]

@@blackpoolbouncer thanks for much for the info and I look forward to seeing how you get on with your next batch of autos in your new room.

Oh, I knew there was something else I meant to ask you. I too live in an area that can fluctuate between between hard and soft water as it gets its supply from two different reservoirs that can fluctuate. What are the signs to look out for with cal mag issues and is it safe to give precautionary doses of calmag? I previously suffered what I thought was LSF, but in hindsight I suspect that it may have been calmag problems.

Thanks again,

Bajer.

Edited May 18, 2016 by Bajer101

[blackpoolbouncer]

@ your welcome dude.

I tried a run where I tried to see how far I could get without it and it is not advisable. Cal defs are a hard thing to chase and look in the beginning similar to your "lsf".....trademark is brown rusty spots. Generally very small but it quickly takes hold.

Mag defs are where the intervienal ares become pale but leave green margins around the veins. Kinda looks stripey. Google will give you a good idea what to look for if you look for the reoccurring theme.

I consider it imperative to run a maintainance dose from perhaps day 20 onwards. This keeps any problems at bay. I generally run between 1 and 1.5ml pl as a baseline. And up as required. If required.

Cannabis I find to be a hungry plant for mag and its lacking in pm bloom. Cal defs although down to water are a common occurrence for growers during winter as a result of chilly roots and a warm canopy. This combination seems to cause cal to lockout first from what I've seen.

You don't see it pop up as much during summer on the boards and this is the reason why.

Hope that helps bud. Its always good to get questions as it gives me chance to refresh and go back over stuff. After all this is getting to be a book.

On another note when the growing season is winding down I'm gonna start compiling my photos and start writing a definitive guide to growing auto's with good practise and whatever knowledge I can muster that will be helpful. General growing stuff too like composting and organic fertilisation and permaculture.

It will be a fair old memoir so I'm gonna have to see if I can find a way of publishing a pdf to be linked to here.

Would be nice to chapterise it and have the information at hand a bit easier.

Must dash. Just having a quick j after watering before I go and fit an engine in my second love

Toodle pip

Edited May 18, 2016 by blackpoolbouncer

[Topdraw]

@@blackpoolbouncer who cares about this crispy leaves at this stage the buds look spot on mate.

Cheers for the Calmag advice, possible I don't need much but don't think a little will do any harm, I'm using ionic so not sure how much there is in there.

The ww xxl are now on day 16 and approaching the 5th node, the roots showed at the bottom of the 11l pots around day 12 only 2 days after potting up. I put this down to the great dinafem genetics and the clover compost.

Not long now before the training commences. Thanks mate.

Cheers TD

[sy100276]

@@blackpoolbouncer absolutely splendid, nothing better than a room full of buddage.

Nice idea about some kind of guide, you certainly have the knowledge.

Have fun fitting the engine.

[Guest Bajer101]

@@blackpoolbouncer Thanks again fella. Great advice about the CalMag. I'll probably be using PM/OT bloom so I'll pick up a bottle of CalMag just in case.